Canadian Corvettes Battle U-boat Wolfpacks in the Battle of Atlantic, WW2 - HMCS Sackville 

Father served on the Chiliwak during the war. He was 16. Never said much about it except how cold it was in the north Atlantic until near the end of his life. Then had nightmares about what he had seen. Said one day they found a lifeboat with all the sailors frozen to death. But the worst he said was after a ship was torpedoed the cries of the men in the water, as they were not allowed to stop and pick up survivors as they would be sitting ducks for the uboats. He then was a sailor on a hospital ship during the d day invasion and had flashbacks to that day. Like most of that generation, he buried everything he went through and it never surfaced until his last days. Miss you dad.

Like some others commenting here, my father served on corvettes during WWII. A 17 year kid from Montreal never spoke much about the experiences, likely due to those times he did painted an ugly picture. What I learned from a shipmate of his, who annually visited our family, he served very gallantly. Not only lucky to survive, but lucky to come home with a "Newfie war-bride", who became the greatest Mom on earth ; ). That you for this!!

My father served in the Battle of the Atlantic, he signed up at age 16. Dicky and Greyhound were the radio callsigns for the ships in the movie. The Sackville WAS the "Dicky", at least in essence. In preparation for production, a team came to Halifax and laser scanned the Sackville from bow to stern, superstructure to waterline from every angle, and multiple photographs were taken. This info was used to create the CGI Corvette "Dicky" for the movie. There is a Sackville close to Halifax, and there is a Sackville in New Brunswick, close to the NS border.

On behalf of my Country CANADA ...I THANK YOU!...🇨🇦♥️🇬🇧♥️🇺🇸

Should look into “HMCS Haida” it’s a museum ship now but in its prime served ww2 in the battle of the Atlantic taking down more enemy ships then any Canadian warship in history, later served in the Korean War and then became the first warship sent on a peacekeeping mission during the suez crisis.

The author Nicholas Monsarrat wrote a novel in 1951 called "The Cruel Sea." It reflected the authors' own experience closely, and was an extremely accurate rendering of a corvette at war. It had more of a British than a Canadian emphasis, but, nevertheless it was taught in Canadian high school literature classes for many years. The book was filmed in 1953 starring Jack Hawkins and a very young Denholm Elliott. The film feels even more "Britified," but it's extremely well done, a minor film classic. I'm sure that "Greyhound" owes a lot to it.

My dad from landlocked Alberta served on the H M C S Tillsonburg K 496 . He had many convoys to Ireland, Scotland , Murmansk (Russia ) and Bermuda. A great Canadian site for anything navy is - " For Posterity`s Sake ". 🇨🇦 Thanks for this video.

John, you will enjoy seeing Sackville first hand. My dad was a 1st Lieutenant on HMCS Fennel. I can't believe how matter of fact he was about his experiences on convoy duty. All he complained about was the food and generally poor accommodations. He never talked about the dangers they underwent while at sea. "We were needed. We went to sea." That summed it up in his mind and in those he served with.

Great video and reaction! Proud to be a Canadian! 🇨🇦

Hollywood made a movie afeaturing corvettes in 1943, it was called "Corvette K-225" and starred Randolph Scott. The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester was the book "Grayhound" was based on.

My Dad enlisted in the Corvette Navy from 1939 until the end of the war. He served on the escort armed yacht HMCS Renard and frigate HMCS Royal Mount and one other ship I can't recall. I have some of his photos which show the ship covered in thick ice from one of the crossings. He was proud he served in the Navy and we traveled to the Maritimes every few years so he could attend Naval Reunions and he and local sailors founded a Navy Veterans club where we live. Anne

John this made me think of the US709 A Sub chaser, which went aground off the coast of Louisbourg NS, the US sailors were rescued by local fishermen who went out in their fishing dorys in the middle of a blizzard. Many years ago working as an interpretor at the Fortress of Louisbourg national historic site. ( which has many ties to New England, especially the battle in 1745), i had the privilege of meeting one of the survivors and was looking for some of the men who helped in the rescue.. i was honored to set him up with the few who i knew where still living.

John, I love your reactions to these videos. I am an American citizen that moved to Canada as a 7 year old. I joined the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets when I was 12. The sea cadet corps was named after HMCS Chebogue - a river class frigate during WW2. Thre frigate was named after the Chebogue river in Yarmouth county , Nova Scotia. I love your presentations sir. Keep it up as much as you can! I will never give up my American citizenship, but I love Canada so much.....

Thourghly enjoyed this, thank you. I believe she was named after Sackville ,N.B.

If you come to the eastern shores of Canada, please go to Newfoundland (and not just St. Johns). Also, I would suggest looking into WW1 and the story of the Blue Puttees. So sad but so beautiful the way NF sacrificed a generation of young men for Canada and Britain.

Thank you Sir, I think you teach more about Canadian history than anyone in Canada does now, my Dad was RCNVR from 43 to 45 and served in Corvettes and the River class Frigate Strathadam, 17 yrs old and home before his 20th birthday. Love your videos!

I lived in Sackville about twenty klicks outside of Halifax for years and there is also a Sackville New Brunswick, hence the name. Although none of my relatives served on a Corvette, my uncle served on several warships during the war but primarily on the HMCS Ingonish (minesweeper) that saw service patrolling British Columbia's west coast after the attack on Pearl Harbour, then fought in the Battle of the Atlantic on convoy duty, then down off Jamaica before returning to the British Navy in 1945. There it was sold for scrap. My dad age 13 was one of the children (C.O.R.B) that were evacuated from Britain during the Blitz to Canada during the Battle of the Atlantic in convoy ZA on 10/8/40 with 187 boys and 166 girls aboard the HMS Oronsay. Other children were sent to the United States, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Three years later after lying about his age he donned the uniform of The Seaforth Highlanders to go to war. When Germany capitulated the call came out for volunteers to fight the Japanese and he transferred to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and trained with the American Forces before the VJ Day was announced ending WW2.

this amount of bravery can never be forgotten......thank you and yes I will be watching Greyhound

Nicholas Monserrat, the great Canadian author, served on a Flower Class corvette in WW2. His novel "The Cruel Sea" is a must read. My copy is old and yellowed now, because I have re-read it several times over the years. You have created an excellent video about the HMCS Sackville, nicely done.

Hey John, my late father was a merchant sailor during WW2, he sailed from Halifax, N.S. to Gander, NFLD in av-gas tankers! did 20-plus trips,(considered going overseas! in those days) NFLD was still British territory. great video!

I love your videos! You will certainly love seeing the HMCS Sackville in person. I would also highly recommend the Museum of the Atlantic (which I believe the Sackville is docked at anyway) while in Halifax as well as Citadel Hill. I'm from Moncton, New Brunswick a little over 2 hours away, there is definitely no shortage of fun things to do while here. I hope you enjoy your trip!

Thank-you,Respect & heart felt Honour given to you for this Vid.~~ Part of my Families History.. All the Very Best to You & Yours

I have had the privilege of visiting both HMCS Haida in Hamilton ON and HMCS Sackville in Halifax NS. Conditions those young men lived and fought in is a real eye opener. HMCS Haida has the record for the most North Korean steam engines destroyed from sea during the Korean War.

I had an uncle that served on a Canadian destroyer and was involved in the convoys to Murmansk. His best friend took home movies of the trips, including attacks on their convoys. The films were confiscated by the navy and he never saw them again. My uncle said he saw many terrible things but would give no details.

Another example of USN and RCN co-ordinated Naval action was on a Trinidad to New York tanker convoy. The Canadian corvettes Oakville and Snowberry, working with the USS Lee, encountered a U boat that was torpedoing tankers off the US. During the action the Oakville rammed the U boat and laid along side. The German crew went to man their deck guns and since Oakville's wouldn't depress far enough, the Canadian sailors pelted the German crew with empty coke bottles that were stored under the aft Pom Pom Bandstand. The German crew went below to scuttle their boat and Oakville sent a Boarding Party of two armed with pistols to secure their surrender. While the sub was sinking, Sub Lt Hal Lawrence went below to try to capture the German code books but had to leave before finding them. Lawrence was awarded the DSC for his action.

The naval technical advisor for "Greyhound" was a retired Canadian Naval Officer, Gordon Laco (as am I). The tactics and shiphandling (though time-compressed) are the most accurate I've ever seen depicted. The Corvette 'Dickey' carried the hull number K136. While HMCS Sackville (K181) was the digital model, they used K136 on the hull in deference to HMCS Shawiningan, torpedoed by U-1228 and lost with all hands on November 25th 1944. The model for the RN destroyer F80 was another Canadian museum ship, one of our WWII Tribal-class destroyers, HMCS Haida (G63). The real Convoy HX-25 actually departed Halifax in March 1940 and was led by HMCS St. Laurent (H83), a former Royal Navy C-class destroyer sold to Canada in 1937. The USN was not yet in the war. While escorting Convoy SC-110 in December 1942, St. Laurent sank U-356. The fictional USS Keeling (DE548) depicted in the movie was a nice digital model of an American Fletcher-class ship. However, the first one commissioned into the USN wasn't until June 1942 and of the 175 built, all 25 lost or damaged beyond repair occurred fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. Nonetheless, this was an excellent depiction of novelist C.S. Forester's, "The Good Shepard".

former navy guy live in halifax and have been on sackville several times great tour if u get the chance to come to canada well worth the money

Admittedly I haven't watched all your videos but I always appreciate your coverage of Canadian topics/content! So thank you for this & all you do! -From one of your neighbours to the north. ❤

I went aboard HMCS Sackville as a kid, when I was in the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps. She really is a beauty. It's good to see her legacy still going strong nearly 25 years later.

HMCS Sackville was named after Sackville, New Brunswick, a small university town just inside the provincial border with Nova Scotia

I've actually done a tour of the Sackville, as Halifax is only about 2.5 hours drive from where I live. Pretty cool experience. The entire Halifax harbour honestly is awesome. Especially duing the tall ships festival. If you vist ever, I recommend checking it all out. Hope everyone is staying safe and taking care. Sackville is in New Brunswick, also Nova Scotia, the one in NB is about 20 mins on the highway from the NS border, the university of Mount Allison is located there. Nice small town if you like quiet living.

Thank you John for another great video about Canada. I have followed you for about 7 years and have watched almost all of your vids. keep up the good work and enjoy!!

The community of Sackville is only 20 kilometers from Halifax. HMCS Sackville does not always sit at a berth accessible to civilians, she winters at CFB Cape Scott. The 2 berths are physically very close but accessibility is restricted while she is on base.

"Dicky" and "Greyhound " are the ship's callsigns as apposed the the actual ship names that were never ever broadcast on an open radio channel, nor by signal light.

Had friends in the RCN on escort duty in the North Atlantic, including the run to Murmansk(the Rusduans did not let the crews come off the ships) there. Tough ships, tough crews. These vessels had a tendency to ship a lot of water in heavy seas, did not make a pleasant situation. Randolph Scott made a movie Corvette K-225 during the war. They used a real corvette that was listed as on a long refit, number K-225. They also went out on escort. Very realistic presentation and under rated. Depending on cargo, the merchant ship crews prepared for bed differently. Regular cargos = as usual in case of abandoning ship. Cargoes like iron = clothes on, boots ready, doors open as sinking would be fast. Explosives = close the doors, dress in night stuff because if ship blown up there would be no chance. Was told this by veterans and read it too.

Great video, John. Thank you.

Canada's navy started convoy duty and UBoat warfare starting September 10th, 1939. Didn't see the Americans in the North Atlantic until the Spring of 1942, two years later. However, the USA assisted greatly through the lend lease program.

Living in Halifax, I've been on the Sackville quite a few times. She's a tough little ship. Ugly, cramped, and built to kill subs. Beautiful in her own way, even eighty years later. The Sackville was photographed extensively and digitized, to be used as the CGI model for the Dicky.

An interesting piece of history on this topic is the story of three American ships ( USS Truxtun, USS Wilkes, and USS Pollux) who were manoeuvring under radio silence, heading for the American Army and Navy base on the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland. They ran aground against a rocky cliff. The Newfoundland people took them in, saving the crews. The Americans built a hospital there out of gratitude.

Thank you For the video. 31:27 Sackville Nova Scotia is 19 km (12 miles) north of Halifax.

I believe my Grandfather served aboard one of these ships. The HMSC Napanee. I'd have to check with my mom though to be certain.

My Grandfather and one of my Uncles served on the corvettes. They never told 'war stories' when I was little. Now, looking back as an adult, I know why.

My father was an engine room artificer on the HMCS Barrie towards the end of the war (lied about his age) and so missed the worst of the Battle of the Atlantic. They never saw 'action' but did deploy depth charges and, one time, picked up survivors. Apparently, a detail of the rescue was mis-reported and made it's way into several books...there are several books in our local library where my dad's handwriting corrects the record. :) They stopped in New York a few times and Dad said it was great because "the Americans always paid!" haha Great commentary and choice of subject matter again!

thank you , one of the real unknown stories. of great hero's. i remember when i hear of movie makers were in Halifax ns. they took as i understand a lot of pictures of HMCS Sackville

I don't comment a lot but as a history fan and Maritimer I wanted to say I loved this video. Sackville is a town in New Brunswick. Having visited this ship I wanted say it is definitely worth it, such cool history! Learn a lot of things that I didn't know about the ship, like it being converted into a research vessel, as a biologist this was a extra bit of history that I didn't know that is so fascinating to me! Been a fan for a while keep up the great videos!

Actually the US provided escorts before it was in the war. Oddly when the US came into the war many of the escorts were withdrawn by King either to support the Pacific war or to escort expected troop ships leaving only the US coast Guard vessels. King was no fan of the British and had limited belief in convoys. Ultimately the Canadian Navy had to extend it escorts down as far as New York and the British had to supply 35 anti sub trwlers and corvettes down to escort ships along the American coast. Because so many tankers were being lost along the coast of the US the Canadian and British navy had to establish their own convoys of tankers outside the American sealanes. Later that was resolved with the massive production from the US. There was a standing joke about corvettes that they would roll in wet grass. There was a movie about the corvettes made during the war pushed by Randolf Scott called Corvette K225. Another really great movie about corvettes is The Cruel Sea.

Thank You from a patriotic 🇨🇦

You will love Nova Scotia ! Halifax is a terrific modern city with lots of history The Maritime museum of the Atlantic is on the waterfront in Halifax Titanic exhibits and tons more The rest of the province is just as spectacular But I am biased 😊

"Give 'em hell, Dicky!" 11:04 😃

The Flower Class Corvette was based on a Whaler. They were not built to Admiralty standards, which allowed other ship yards to build them.

The size of the boat is not the factor for how many men on board, its about redundancy and attrition. I worked on a tanker and was a deck hand , one of my duties was to layout and man the spring line which is the first line out when birthing. We pulled into a naval base and as we were docking I noticed there were 7 or 8 men on the deck of a frigate manning one line that was smaller gauge than the line I was manning. I thought about it a lot and realized why and it is disturbing. The battles in WWII were pure carnage . I believe we had 4 aircraft carriers by the end of the war, not bad for a tiny country.

Had a chance to go aboard the Sackville a few years back - very impressive! When you are in Halifax see if you can take in a match of the Halifax Wanderers FC.

Greyhound isn't a bad movie, and it's one of the rare examples of Hollywood actually giving the RCN some credit for even being in the war, nevermind that the entire North Atlantic theatre was commanded by a Canadian. As for Tom "Hard Over" Hanks (improbably playing a commander 25 years younger), I can't remember any other movie where "hard over" was barked even once, let alone 5 or 6 times. Still, I enjoyed it. I got a bit of a thrill to see that maple leaf in battle.

Thank you John

Throughout the Royal Canadian Navy, until 1972, sailors of age were each allowed a daily rum ration. Chimo

Basically, someone whispered "It's war" to the Canadians and it escalated from there.

Thank you kindly

u boats where spotted in saint john NB harbour off the bay of Fundy at that time my home town my dad was a navy vet lot of great ships where built here including the fast sailing ship in the world at that time the marco polo also the current frigates

I swear I’ve been on this ship lol it’s in our harbour here in Halifax. Part of the museum now! Have you heard of the Halifax explosion?

If you do ever get to Halifax, try to visit the Marine Memorial in Point Pleasant Park. Among many others, my uncle's name is listed there (1942, Guilfoyle, T.)

A common tactic for corvettes and sometimes destroyers was to ram surfaced u-boats. Many of the corvettes were built in yards on the Great Lakes from Kingston to Thunder Bay. The ships were small enough to make it through the canal past Montreal and out to sea. Canada also built frigates and destroyers including the tribal class destroyer which was more akin to small cruiser.

As an arm chair Historian, I have my doubts about the US relegating the Fletcher class Destroyer to Convoy duty only because it was the most advanced US Destroyer of its time and served mostly in the Pacific. What the US sent for Convoy duty was mostly outdated Frigates and Destroyers, at the presumption of the War the US didn't even want their Cargo ships in Convoys until they suffered great losses and only then did they acquiesce to the idea of Convoys and give over Command to the Canadians.

Thank you for this

Oh hey John. Just thought I'd let you know that Come from Away is having another run this August in Ottawa at the NAC. 2 weeks only.

If you're interested, there is a new doc on the Lancaster. My dad flew one.

Thank you ❤️👊

I am a Canadian and have learned much from your channel, You find the best clips. Have you ever heard of the folk singer Stompin Tom? See if you can find a song called Wop May by him. There is a display about him in The aviation museum in Edmonton.

The movie is based on the C.S. Forester book 'The Good Shepard' Dicky is the radio call sign, I can't remember the original call sign for the destroyer but it was not Greyhound. Destroyers are know as the greyhounds of the seas.

As a kid I visited the Saint John shipyard that was building our current Frigates. It was also at this time that the Merchant Marines were in court fighting to be recognized as Veterans. I do not believe they were able to receive pensions nor were they able to access supports from Veterans Affairs.

HMCS Sackville was named after Sackville, NB according to the ship's website.

Let us know when you’re coming to Halifax 😊 if you’d like a tour of the harbour, I’d be pleased to offer you a sail on my old Catalina 30 . Cheers

That was great to see. 👍👍

Dickie was not a real ship but they did a good job with her. If I'm not mistaken, the last Canadian Corvette, HMCS Sackville is at the Halifax Harbour now. The producers of Greyhound came to Nova Scotia and took thousands of photos of Sackville and used them to render the digital Dickie. It was nice to see Tom Hanks get it right after being unfair to the Canadians in Saving Private Ryan.

great video, British corvettes were named for flowers \and Canadian corvettes were named for Canadian cities and towns

The Dicky is not HMCS Shackville but HMCS Sahwinigan. How can you tell? There's an identification number on the bow of each ship. The Shackville's is K181 and the Dicky's is K136, which corresponds to HMCS Shawinigan but this is just a movie.. the HMCS Dodge could be just a mix of both ships.

We go from the third or fourth largest navy in 45 to today's three inner tubes,two rainbow rowboats,and tampons in men's washrooms..lol. Thanks Justin.

My father was a stoker on a corvette during WW 2

Don't think early Corvettes had a main gun, so sailors were known to acquire 3.7 in ? Anti Tank guns and mount them.

Wish canada would get are buts in gear and start putting effort into makeing are military good agian

There’s a town with same name from east to west here in Canada, here in Ontario as well

Sackville is a small town in South Eastern N.B.

LOL ... as Im enjoying a Guinness ... we had the 2nd largest navy in the world at the end of the war .... mostly Corvettes & Destroyers for convoy duty thats how we still have a flying Lancaster in Hamilton because it was active Coast Guard till ? 1970 ish

when will we learn people are all the same it dose not matter where they live we must learn to stop killing each other and live in peace so are young men don't have to go to war

If you can go to the tattoo with your family great event great experience.

sackville is in newbrunswick but lower sackville which we call sackville is a comunity just outside of halifax nova scotia canada

By the end of ww2 Canada had the third largest navy.

The advantage of the corvette is they could be built quickly

Thanks for all your videos. Amazing. I would be interested in your reaction to this one. INFANTRY SOLDIER - CANADIAN ARMED FORCES. Posted by Kun Fang . It is just over 4 minutes, but very informative and interesting IMO

I believe that corvettes were more of a poor man’s navy choice and that may well have been the reason your navy chose not to use them. From what I understand they were not really made for operation in open seas and were hell for their crews. Btw, if this hasn’t already been answered, Sacksville is in Ontario.

my bad got the wrong one sorry all i was thinking sackville

I believe Canada had the 3rd largest navy at the end of the 2nd world war?

The black watch snipers by history hit please again my friend 🙏

Have you ever covered the devils brigade? If so when

You want an example of Inter-country cooperation. Royal Canadian Navy Mine Sweeping flotilla 31 assigned to sweep the approaches to Omaha Beach. That's right Omaha. They were told before they left, expect 75% casualties. They were also told that once they started the sweep no matter how heavy the shelling got they could take no evasive measures they just had to take it. If their ship was disabled and had to stop they would be sunk by the guns of the US Navy. Spoiler alert 31 did it's job no ships sunk. But no Flotilla 31 no Saving Private Ryan.

i sailed on the river class hmcs fraser and retired her they pretty much had same technology except for weapons onboard lol when we went to american ports the us sailors use to ask us if it was a museum boat lol

Fyi you mentioned a maple leaf flag on the sackville.....that was not our flag until well after ww2.

🤔 One time 🇨🇦Canada had the third biggest Navy in the world Next to the U.S and Britain.😉

Canada was the first Country that included women to vote back in the first world war.and it took USA to do the same after so much pain within your own country. we try to include everybody with commence. Not so difficult if you really think about it.

Sackville, New Brunswick borders onto Nova Scotia

The RCN was the 4th largest in the world at the time but thanks to the likes of Pierre Trudeau who also dismantled the last of our Belvedere aircraft carriers, the RCN now is around the same size as Luxemburg's.